Twilight's Spell
by edgegirl131
Summary: Brooke is the younger sister of Peter Quill. She was 3 when they were taken from home and was adopted by Yondu quickly after the kidnapping. 26 years later, she gets caught up in the events of Guardians. This is the story of what happens, and the aftermath of that event.
1. Exposition part 1

**Thank you so much to those that waited patiently for me to write this. For those that read the old story, a few things have (obviously) been changed. One of the main changes is that this story is not a Rocket x OC like the last one, I was inspired to pair my OC off with another character during Age of Ultron (not gonna say who though). Enough waiting though, it's time we begin our story.**

I sigh and close my eyes. Mommy just had my baby sister, but something's wrong now. My big brother and I are waiting in the hall now. Mommy had already been sick before the baby was born, she had lost her hair and had problems doing things on her own, but things are really bad now. "Peter?" I whisper to my big brother, "Is mommy gonna be okay?" He shrugs. I know he's not really listening; he has headphones on and is listening to the Walkman. I sigh again. I haven't seen my baby sister yet, but I bet she looks like daddy (I saw him once) and has his green (or were they blue) eyes. I have brown eyes and Peter has eyes like daddy, but we both have blonde hair like mommy had. My baby sister might have blonde hair, too.

Grandpa walks out of mommy's room. "Your momma wants to talk to you two," he says. We don't move. "Come on, take those fool things off, Peter, and put that old bear down, Brooke." I look down at Snow Bear and hand her to him. Peter and I stand up. Grandpa puts the Walkman and Snow Bear in Peter's backpack and we all enter the silent room. Peter and I stand on either side of mommy.

"Why you been fightin' with the other boys, baby?" she asks Peter. He ignores her. "Peter."

"They smooshed a little frog that ain't done nothin'," Peter responds.

She smiles sadly. "You're so much like you're daddy, and he was an angel," she starts having trouble speaking, "composed out of pure light."

Grandpa coughs. "You had a present for each of the kids." She nods slightly and tries to pick up three small gifts. "Let me help ya, Mer." Grandpa picks up the gifts and puts them in Peter's bag. "I got ya, Pete."

"You two open them when I'm gone, and give the last one to your baby sister," she says. She then turns to me. "You keep your brother out of trouble. Got that, Sweetie?" I nod my head, starting to cry a little bit. She smiles at my brother and I. "You're grandpa's gonna take such good care of you two." She holds her hand out. "Take my hand, Peter," she says to him, "you too, Brooke." I do so. Peter turns his head away. "Peter, please."

"Take your mother's hand, Peter," grandpa tells my brother.

"Where's our sister? Where is she?" I ask mommy. She doesn't answer, focused on Peter. I hear a machine next to me make a loud beeping noise and I see mommy go still and quiet. "Mommy! Mommy!"

"No! Mom!" Peter calls. Grandpa has to hold Peter as he lunges himself at mommy, I try to do the same, but someone else grabs me.

Peter and I are both dragged into the hall. "I need you two to stay here," grandpa tells us before returning to the room crying. I look up at my brother.

"We need to find our baby sister, take care of her," I tell him. He shakes his head and takes of down the hall. I follow him; I'm scared and I'm only three. Peter's eight and my big brother, he's supposed to take care of me. He ends up falling in the field near the hospital. I sit down with him and we both cry. We cry until a bright light hits us. Peter and I look up, but I can't see anything besides the light. Then it feels like something is pulling me.

"MOM!" I hear Peter scream as the ground leaves us and is replaced by a metal floor.

I look around the room in fear. My hands instantly grab Peter's arm for protection. We're surrounded by scary looking, weird men. One of them, a blue skinned guy with a future-like red Mohawk, steps forward and starts talking in some weird language I don't understand. Another one, he looks normal except he has his own Mohawk-like styled hair and is wearing a weird outfit like the rest of them, says something in the weird language to the blue man. He looks at us seriously and replies back to the normal looking guy. They have what sounds like an argument until someone in the back says something. The other two don't seem to like it. The blue guy whistles real loud and a weird floaty arrow flies over right in the face of the guy that just talked. He then says something loud enough for all the men to hear and they all nod in sync. He then whistles again and the arrow comes back to him.

"Peter," I whisper, "I'm scared." He pulls me closer to him as the blue man seems to tell the other men to do stuff. They all leave except for the normal looking man from earlier, another normal looking man with a different weird hairstyle, and the blue man.

"It's going to be okay, Brooke," Peter tells me. He pushes me behind him so that I'm kinda hidden. "I won't let 'em hurt you." The three men then look towards us and blue man tells the other two something. They both reply before turning to us. The newer guy walks over and grabs Peter and he starts fighting. "Run, Brooke!" he yells.

Before I can even take a step, the Mohawk guy grabs my arm. I start to struggle a bit, but he kneels down and looks me in the eyes. He whispers something to me in a comforting voice. I think he might have said 'Calm down, it's going to be okay. I won't hurt you.' I don't know, but I do exactly what I think he might have said and stop fighting him. He smiles and picks me up carefully. He looks at the guy trying to handle Peter and shakes his head before walking out of the room, flashing a smirk at the glaring blue man.

He takes me to a hospital like room and lays me on a bed. He looks over at someone behind the bed I'm now laying down on and says something to him sternly. I see a guy with hair that comes up in the middle, I wouldn't exactly say Mohawk, and blue, wrinkly forehead come over. He says something back and grabs a mask off of a stand. Mohawk man takes it from him and puts it on over my mouth. The blue man comes in and starts to talk to Mohawk man while the other guy gets things together. I start to feel sleepy and close my eyes. I can hear the guy that had Peter coming in, but I fall asleep too soon to know anything else. The last thing I feel is hand resting gently on my head, ruffling my hair.

 **So, what do you think? This story is a tie in with Frozen Love on Watt Pad. I might post that story here as well, but only if you ask and I'm given permission to by the author (she probably will if you're too lazy to look it up on there). Anyway, please leave a review as it can sometimes motivate me to write the next chapter faster. Thanks for reading!**


	2. Exposition part 2

**I apologize for over a year of waiting for this update. It took a long time to find inspiration for this chapter and I'm afraid that I can't really make any promises for when the next one will be posted. I do thank you guys for coming back though.**

When I wake up, I see Peter sleeping on one side of me and the Mohawk guy that brought me here sleeping on the other side. Peter is in a bed-like thing and the guy is in an uncomfortable chair. He looks like he's been sleeping there for a long time. I look around the rest of the room. It's filled with really weird machines, like the ones that were connected to my mommy before she…left us. And now Peter and I have left our baby sister. Poor baby. "Well good morning, princess," the Mohawk guy says. I look over towards him, and he gives me a smile. "How's the translator working?"

I think about what he asks. "The what?" I have no idea what a translator is. "Wait, I know what you're saying now!"

He laughs at me. "That's what the translator is for, princess," he says as he lifts me off the table. "I think we should go check in with Yondu while we wait for your brother to wake up."

"Why's he still asleep? And who's Yondu?"

"Well, your brother wasn't being good like you, so we had to give him more medicine to go to sleep, and let us give him a translator like we did you. As for Yondu, he's the captain of the Eclector." He sees that I'm confused. "The Eclector is our ship."

"Oh, ok. Is Yondu nice?" He laughs. "I guess that's no."

We stop in front of a door and wait for it to open. When it does, I see the blue guy from earlier yelling at everyone. He stops to look at us. "Well it's about time one of those damn kids woke up. Put her down Kraglin, she's gonna have to learn to walk by herself." The Mohawk guy, Kraglin, puts me on the ground, but places his hand on my shoulder. Yondu kneels down in front of me. "What's your name, princess?"

"Brooke Grace Quill," I say confidently. It seems like things work easier when I do what I'm told, so I'll just keep doing that so they'll take me back to my baby sister.

"Well Brooke, we picked you up by mistake, so it looks like you're going to be spending a lot of time with us. I mean, seeing as you'll be living with us now."

"But what about my baby sister. She's still at the hospital with my… with no one. She's all alone."

"Sir," one of the guys Yondu had been yelling at earlier speaks up. "The boy's awake. And he seems to be going into a panic attack."

I hear Kraglin sigh. "I'll go calm him down," he says. I watch as he removes his hand from my shoulder and leaves. Yondu brings my attention back to him by replacing Kraglin's hand.

"Now what do you mean that girl's alone?" Yondu asks. "I'm sure she's got your mom and dad watching out for her, right?"

I shake my head sadly. "Mommy died." I notice how he looks a little guilty now. "And we've never had a daddy before."

"I can't help your brother or sister, Brooke, but I can take care of you. From this moment on, I'm going to be your father."

"What about Peter?"

"We're taking him to his dad as we speak." I open my mouth to speak. "Before you ask, this guy only asked for us to bring him his son, nothing about any girls. That means that he's either a terrible father or not yours. Good chance it's both honestly. I swear, that guy is a…" he seems to rethink whatever he was about to say. "The point of this is that you're my kid now, so the next time someone asks you for your name, you tell them that it's 'Brooke Grace Udonta,' got it?" I nod at this.

"Yondu," I hear Kraglin say from over a speaker somewhere. "The boy's asking to see that the girl's ok. Can someone bring her down so he will shut up?" I look at Yondu as he rolls his eyes.

"I'm bringing her right now," he says. He grabs my hand and we start to walk back to the room I woke up in. We stop in front of the door. "Now I don't want you saying anything to your brother about where we're going, ok? No telling what he'll do." He looks at the door again. "Let me talk to him real quick, then you can come in." He goes into the room.

I look around the hallway I'm in and see some weird people coming toward me. They all look human, but something tells me they're not. "The Broker said that it's worthless, which leaves me stuck with it," one says.

The other two laugh. "Maybe you could just leave it laying around somewhere on the ship and hope that someone picks it up," another one says.

"With Horuz's luck, they'll bring it right back to him," the third one jokes. They all stop talking when they see me. The third one smirks and grabs something from his friend. He gets down to my height. "Hey kid, want a pretty necklace?" He holds up said necklace for me to see. It's a gold key on a gold chain.

"Just because I'm little doesn't mean I'm dumb," I tell them. "You just want to get rid of it. I'll take it just because I'm nice." I hold my hand out for the necklace.

"Aren't you the smart little jinx?" the first guy (Horuz?) asks. "You two shits are making our jobs harder, so we'll give you the necklace if you promise to stay quiet and mind your own damn business." I nod my head. "Good." They hand me the necklace and start to leave. "You know what they say: having a lady on a ship is bad luck, even a small one. That girl is going to be a jinx to all of us."

I wonder what a jinx is, but Yondu interrupts my thoughts. "You can come see your brother now, sweetie." I smile at him a rush inside.

Peter is still in his bed thing and looking through his book bag, probably for his Walkman. He sees that I came in. "Oh Brooke, I was worried that they did something to you." I run over and jump up to hug him. "I promise you that everything is going to be ok from here on. Nothing else bad is ever gonna happen to you. Promise." I know he's not telling the truth. I know because I can see my new daddy shaking his head.


	3. Now You've Done It

**As you guys can see, I changed the rating because this isn't going to get as intense I had originally planned for it to get.**

I stare boredly out the window at Morag. I don't know why I let Peter talk me into staying on the sidelines for this "mission." He probably just wanted to be a dancing dork by himself. What a loser! I wonder what he did with that girl from last night, I doubt it was anything decent.

"Hey, Brooke," I hear Peter's voice say over my earpiece, "would you mind opening the bridge hatch for me?"

"What happened?" I ask as I activate my mask and open the roof. "Wait, let me guess. You made some new friends, but you didn't play nice and now they're trying to kill us?"

He slides in and shuts the roof. "Not exactly." He starts to take off while I buckle myself in. "I don't think they ever wanted to be friends really." He dodges a blast his not-friends shoot at us. He starts to fly away from where the group is standing. "But I totally scored in the treasure department." He gets distracted and flies towards a geyser. "Look at this…" He gets cut off by being thrown around the bridge. I roll my eyes at him, this is why I buckle up.

"Not the time to be distracted, Peter," I yell. I watch as he struggles to climb back up to his seat.

"Little help here."

"Say the magic word."

"Brooke!" I give him a look. "Please!" I smirk and take control of the ship. I hear Peter hit the back of the ship. We stabilize quickly and I hear Peter sigh. "Was that really necessary?"

"You should take every opportunity to be polite," I say matter of factly. "Plus, it was the perfect payback for making me wait on the ship."

"At least this baby's ok," I hear him add. I unbuckle and turn to see him holding the Orb we came to get.

Suddenly, the floor hatch opens up and the girl Peter had over last night comes from it. "Peter, what happened?"

I look over at Peter and see him confused. Of course he forgot about her. "Hey," he begins, "I…" He starts snapping his fingers and looks to me for help.

I shake my head. Does he really think that I take the time to learn the names of the girls he sleeps with? I have more important things to do than babysit his one-night-stands. "Bareet," she informs us.

"Bareet!" Peter repeats like he knew the whole time. I can't believe I'm related to him. "Look, I'm gonna be totally honest with you." He won't. "I forgot you were here." He did.

"And this is why we work on manners," I say. I walk towards Bareet. "Let's get some breakfast, sweetie." I usher her down the hatch and motion for Peter to follow us. I turn on the news from Xandar while Peter begins looking for another woman to sleep with on some program he downloaded.

I watch as Bareet gets herself something to drink, but I turn my attention to the news when they talk about the Kree. Apparently there are riots across their empire over the treaty with Nova Prime. This is why I don't get into politics. I look over at a hook on the wall behind the screen.

The hook holds the hat I had in Peter's bag when we left Terra. It's a faded Disney baseball cap from a trip we took just before my mom got pregnant with my sister. I wonder if she's into Terran politics or even Disney. I wonder if she's even alive or safe. My thoughts of her are cut short by Bareet answering a call.

"Quill?" Yondu says over the speakers. I suddenly become aware that Peter had been playing music before this. It's on so often that I only notice when it isn't on. Peter greets Yondu nervously. Granted, I'd be nervous if I were in his place as well. "I'm here on Morag. Ain't no orb, ain't no you, and ain't no girl either."

"Well," Peter starts, "Brooke and I were in the neighborhood."

I jump in over whatever he's saying. "Don't drag me into this. You flew here. I am at no fault."

Yondu steps in before we can start arguing. "Well, where are you now?"

Peter covers my mouth to stop me from answering for him. "I feel really bad about this, but we're not gonna tell you." He's trying to get us killed now.

"I slaved putting this deal together…" Yondu begins to rant.

"Slaved?" Peter interrupts. "Making a few us calls is 'slaved?' I mean really?" I'm on the verge of biting. Is he really going to try so hard get us killed for a few quick units?

I do exactly what I'm thinking and he pulls away quickly. "I'm going to make sure we don't hit anything," I say. "Play nice." That's not going to help the situation, but I try.

I climb to the bridge and stare out into the nothingness. This is the view that people back on Terra dream of, and I'm sick of it. I want to see the green grass and plain houses I remember from the short time I lived there. Despite how much I've given up on returning, the picture I paint in my head gets me through the tough times I've had to face up here.

Xandar starts to come closer, so I call down to Peter and Bareet. She changes back into the clothes she had come in and we land the ship. Peter tries to have a goodbye, but it's kind of a mute point at this point given everything that happened. She leaves us and we walk to the Broker's. "Ok, Brooke," Peter says, "you're going to wait outside in case Yondu and the Ravagers somehow catch up to us. They'll trust you if you tell them that I left you behind."

"They're not that stupid," I tell him. "Unlike you. I'll stay though. Never was too fond of the guy." He nods and leaves me behind. I walk around a bit to look a little less like a bodyguard. The first thing to catch my attention is a tree and a raccoon. They look really suspicious, constantly looking over at me and the Broker's shop. Not a good sign. I walk a little closer. "Do you have a problem with me or something, gentlemen?"

They jump at my voice. The raccoon looks at me insulted. "I don't know where you'd get an idea like that, ma'am," he says politely. "My friend and I were just discussing about how lovely you are." Before I can respond on how much bullshit that is, we hear Peter yell. "Groot, someone's trying to nab our bounty. Get the girl." He runs off after the Peter and some girl while the tree grabs me by the ankles. Struggling is completely useless here, and I get put into a bag.

I can feel myself being carried somewhere. Where the hell is my blaster? It's always on my right side. After feeling for a good moment, I'm dropped onto the ground. I climb out to see a three way fight between the girl, Peter, and the tree/raccoon. I place my hands on my hips, angry to have been in the bag and dropped. As soon as I do that, I can feel my blaster on my left side. Of course. Before I even fire a shot, the Nova Corps step in. "Put your weapon down," one of them yells at me.

I drop it and get grabbed by a few of them. I see Peter with another corpsman, Dey if I remember correctly from the last time we saw him. I didn't do anything in the fight, and I still get arrested. I hate the system.


	4. An Epic Breakout

"Brooke Grace Udonta-Quill. Yondu Udonta decided to adopt her after picking her and her brother up from Terra," Dey reads my information off of my file. I look over at the screen to read the stuff he's not gonna say.

It says that my alias is "Jinx," which is a nickname I got from some of the Ravagers. It's supposedly bad luck to have a girl as part of the crew. I just thought it sounded cool and decided to roll with it. The information continues by stating my height, weight, species, origin, number of arms and legs, and my enhancements. Nothing really interesting there. That all disappears as it opens my rap sheet up. My associates are Peter, dad, Kraglin, and the Ravagers. Pretty sad if you ask me. I need to make some more friends. Next up is my actual crimes. I've got three counts petty larceny, four counts of vandalism (all my ex's deserved it), and one count of arson. That factory wasn't completely my fault. The other Ravagers were the ones that spread the flammable liquid (it's not gasoline apparently, but it does the same job), I was only the one the dropped the match. I was also the one that got caught by security.

"What a bunch of a-holes," the other guy isn't the room says. From the looks of his uniform, I'd guess that he's a denarian.

"Transport all five to the Kyln," Dey orders. The guards grab ahold of us and take us to a transport ship. I watch as another guard goes to take Peter's ship to the impound lot at the Kyln.

The ride started out eerily silent. It's as though everyone was too afraid to break the silence. Guess it's time for me to complain then. "You assholes just had to drag me into this mess," I say. "I was being a good girl and all, I wasn't even a part of your little fight, but I got arrested in the end. Jackasses." Just because I don't know most of these people, doesn't mean I'm going to be automatically nice to them. If situations were different, I'd totally do that. But since we're all being sent to the Kyln, I don't care.

"It's your own fault," the raccoon (I think I heard Dey say he was called Rocket) says. "You tried to pull a blaster out, which made you an automatic threat." I just glare at him. He decides to keep talking as we're brought into the prison. Didn't take that long to get there. "I guess most of the Nova Corps wanna uphold the laws, but the ones here at the Kyln, they're corrupt and cruel. But, hey, that's not my problem. I ain't gonna be here long. I've escaped twenty-two prisons, this one's no different. You and your brother are lucky the broad showed up, because otherwise, me and Groot would be collecting that bounty right now, and you two'd be getting drawn and quartered by Yondu and those Ravagers."

"I'm not afraid of Yondu," I tell him.

"And I've had a lot of folks try to kill me over the years," Peter says. "I ain't about to be brought down by a tree and a talking raccoon."

A guard tells us to stop moving. "What's a raccoon?" Rocket asks.

"'What's a raccoon?'" Peter mocks. "It's what you are, stupid."

"Ain't no thing like me, except me," Rocket says. We keep moving.

"It's probably like Xandarians and Terrans, Peter," I add. "Both have a similar appearance, but they aren't the same."

"Shut up, Brooke," Peter mutters. "Didn't ask for a lesson in alien races. Anyway, this orb has a real shiny blue suitcase, Ark of the Covenant, Maltese Falcon sort of vibe. What is it?" I smirk at his Terran references. Peter never did give up hope of going back.

"I am Groot," the tree (I think he's actually named Groot) says.

"So what?" Peter says to him. He turns to the girl, they called her Gamora. "What's the orb?"

"I have no words for an honorless thief," she says. I can tell I'm gonna like her. We've got a lot in common from what I heard.

"Pretty high and mighty coming from the lackey of a genocidal maniac," Rocket says. Gamora looks at him. "Yeah, I know who you are. Anyone who's anyone knows who you are."

"Yeah, we know who you are," Peter taunts. He turns to Groot and I. "Who is she?"

"Like hell if I know," I mutter. "I only know what the Nova Corps said during the line up."

"I am Groot."

"Yeah, you said that," Peter says to Groot.

"I wasn't retrieving the orb for Ronan," Gamora says, "I was betraying. I had an agreement to sell it to a third party."

"Damn," I say. She's really cool.

"I am Groot."

"Well, that's just as fascinating as the first eighty-nine times you told us that," Peter yells. "What is wrong with Giving Tree, here?"

"Well, he don't know talking good like me and you," Rocket says. I laugh at his dumbed down vocabulary. "So his vocabulistics is limited to 'l' and 'am' and 'Groot.' Exclusively in that order."

"It's not nice to judge people, Peter," I tell him. He rolls his eyes.

"Well I tell you what, that's gonna wear real thin, real fast. If I…" Peter starts saying, but he interrupts himself when he notices a guard touching his Walkman. "Hey! Put that away." The guard ignores him and puts the headphones. This is not going to end well. Peter breaks away towards the guard. "You son of a... Hey! Listen to me, you big blue bastard. Take those headphones off. That's mine, those belong to impound. That tape and that player is mine!" The guards use their stun-rods on him. "Hooked on a Feeling, Blue Swede, 1973. That song belongs to me!" They keep attacking.

Eventually they drag all five of us to a cleansing area. A guard steps up to me as I wait behind Gamora. "Give me the necklace," he says, reaching towards my neck. I recoil. I haven't taken this off since I got it from Horuz when I was little. I thought of it as a sort of lucky charm.

"Please, I really don't like to take it off," I tell him. I grab ahold of it. "I really can't do anything with it anyway. I promise not to hit anyone with it. I wouldn't even take it off to use it as a weapon. Please?" He looks at my begging eyes for a moment before pushing me forward to get cleaned. Thank goodness.

After I'm done, I change in the same area as Gamora. "You know," I say to her. "We're not so different." She just looks at me. "We were both taken from our home planet and adopted by our kidnappers. We were also both trained in the skills our adoptive dads knew. I mean, we were raised completely different from there, but I do feel for you."

She sighs. "I'm not trying to make friends. I'm just trying to survive. Keep your feelings to yourself." She leaves then. I sigh and tie my hair up in a ponytail. I pull on the ugly yellow, short-sleeved shirt and follow Gamora out of the room.

Once in the main area, I watch as the prisoners throw trash and threats at Gamora. "Why are they being so mean to her?" I ask Rocket. He and the other two boys (does Groot have a gender?) have joined up with me.

"It's like I said," he answers, "she's got a rep. A lot of prisoners here have lost their families to Ronan and his goons. She'll last a day, tops."

"The guards will protect her, right?" Peter asks. It sounds like he's just as worried for her as I am.

"They're here to stop us from getting out," Rocket says. "They don't care what we do to each other inside."

"And they call us criminals," I say. These guys deserve to be in these "uniforms" just as much as we do.

"I am Groot," he says nodding. Looks like Groot agrees with me.

Gamora turns to us. "Whatever nightmares the future holds," she says, "are dreams compared to what's behind me." That was a little dramatic.

Peter must have been distracted by what she was saying, because he ran into this huge prisoner. "Check out the new meat," the inmate says. He starts to touch Peter. "I'm gonna slather you up in Gunavian jelly, and go to town…" He gets stopped by Groot grabbing him by the nose.

"Let's make something clear," Rocket announces. "This one here is our booty!" He points to Peter. He then points to me. "Same with that one! You wanna get to them, you go through us! Or, more accurately, we go through you." Groot then drops the inmate and walks off with Rocket.

"I'm with them," Peter yells, following the other two. I run to catch up to them. No way in hell I'm going to try to be alone at any time. I'm pretty small compared to all these prisoners, I wouldn't stand a chance in a fight.

"Here's an idea," I say to the guys when I catch up to them, "let's not leave the 211 microbules, 2008 grets girl all by herself." They all just stared at me. "Fine then, I'm going to go find Gamora. Maybe she'll actually help me protect myself."

"I think she's got her own problems," Rocket says. "You really would be safer with us." I sigh defeated.

"You better take me with you when you escape," I whisper to him. He chuckles at that comment and just nods his head.

—Time Skip—

I wake up from a nightmare suddenly. I try to grasp the difference between reality and the dream. In my dream there was a woman and a man, both held a familiar air about them. The woman looked to be about my age, but she felt slightly younger. She reminded me a lot of my mother. She had light blonde hair and grey (maybe blue, perhaps green) eyes. She's talking to the man. He has long black hair and the same eyes as the woman. Their eyes' remind me a lot of Peter's, but I know that his are different. I feel like a small part of me dies at that realization.

The woman is trapped in a cage. She's frantically hitting it, trying to escape. I try to move to help her, but I'm stuck where I stand. I open my mouth to yell out to her, but no sound comes out. "You monster!" the woman yells. "You did this to me! Shield is good!"

"I'm the monster?" the man whispers. Despite the fact he whispered it, I hear it clear as day. It was the last thing I heard before I woke up. I look around the room I'm in. There are lots of men sleeping on the floor surrounding me. I look up. Groot is beside me.

I remember now. When the guards called for lights out, I followed the boys into their cell. Groot seemed to grow really protective of me and wouldn't let anyone get near me. I ended up falling asleep next to him and Rocket. Where is Rocket anyway? I can't find Peter either. I carefully stand up and walk out of the cell.

I spot them talking to Gamora a little ways down the hall. "My friend Rocket, here, has escaped twenty-two prisons," Peter says. The turn to Rocket. I take this opportunity to walk up to them.

"Oh, we're getting out," Rocket responds. "And then we're headed straight to Yondu to retrieve you and your sister's bounty."

"Bullshit," I say. Everyone jumps and turns to me. Looks like I'm better at sneaking around than I thought. "You can't really be that hellbent to get a couple hundred units for us."

"You two are worth 40,000 units," he says. "So, call me crazy, I plan on turning you both over."

Peter rolls his eyes. "How much was your buyer willing to pay you for my orb?" he asks Gamora. She hesitates.

"Four billion units." We all stand there shocked. While the other two make exclamations, I remain silent. Someone must really want that orb to pay four billion units. What makes it so special though? "That orb is my opportunity to get away from Thanos and Ronan. If you free us, I'll lead you to the buyer directly and I'll split the profit between the four of us."

"I am Groot."

"Five of us," Rocket says. "Asleep for the danger, awake for the money, as per frickin' usual." He turns to me, smirking. "I guess the same could be said for you, princess."

"I'd prefer if you didn't call me that," I tell him. I walk on past him back the cell. The Ravagers used to call me princess in a demeaning way, kind of turned me off from the term. I lay back down beside Groot and hope I dream about the woman and the man again. They seemed important.

—Time Skip—

"If we're gonna get out of here, we're gonna need to get into that watchtower," Rocket begins laying out his master plan to Peter, Gamora, Groot, and I. I'm a little disappointed still that I didn't dream more about the two people last night, but now I have a goal for when I escape and get paid: I'm going to go and find them. "And to do that I'm gonna need a few things. The guards wear security bands to control their ins and outs. I need one."

"Leave it to me," Gamora says. I watch as a guy with a metal leg walks past.

"That dude, there," Rocket points out the guy I was just looking at. "I need his prosthetic leg." He laughs while talking about the leg. I know I'm not going for that one.

"His leg?" Peter asks. The poor idiot. He's actually going to get the leg.

"Yeah," Rocket answers, serious again. "God knows I don't need the rest of him. Look at him, he's useless." Peter basically agrees to getting the leg then. "And finally, on the wall back there is a black panel. Blinky yellow light. Do you see it?"

"Yeah," Peter answers.

"What about it?" I ask.

"There's a quarnyx battery behind it," Rocket says. "Purplish box, green wires. To get into that watchtower, I definitely need it." I look again. That'll be difficult to get.

"How are we supposed to do that?" Gamora asks, voicing my concerns.

Rocket gestures to Gamora and I. "Well, supposably, these bald-bodies find you two attractive. So, maybe one of you can work out some sort of trade."

"You must be joking," she responds. I have to agree. These seem like the type of guys that only find pin-up girls attractive. That type of guy being the sleazy kind.

"No," he says. He seems more serious now than when he was trying to convince Peter about the leg. "I really heard they find you girls attractive."

"Look," Peter draws our attention back to the latter at hand, "it's twenty feet up in the air, and it's in the middle of the most heavily-guarded part of the prison. It's impossible to get up there without being seen."

"I got one plan, and that plan requires a frickin' quarnyx battery, so figure it out! Can I get back to it?" Rocket pauses for us to show we're listening. "Thanks. Now, this is important. Once the battery is removed, everything is gonna slam into emergency mode. Once we have it, we gotta move quickly, so you definitely need to get that last." At that moment, sirens go off. We turn around and see that Groot has gotten the battery for us. "Or we could just get it first and improvise."

"I'll get the armband," Gamora says.

"Leg," Peter calls. They both run off to do their jobs.

"I guess we'll just stay here and hold down the fort," I tell Rocket.

The guards begin to attack Groot through a set of security drones. Rocket hops onto Groot's shoulder while I dive under a table to hide from the bullets. I hear Rocket yell at Groot and Drax toss him a gun. Looks like I'm on my own here. I look around the room to find anything I can use as a weapon. Before I can find anything, an armed guard steps in front of me. "Going somewhere, princess," he says. I'm not going down without a fight.

I stand up to get into position and notice a black glow coming from my necklace. The glow seems to travel to my hands. I swipe my hand to get it to leave, but the action only knocks the gun from the guard's hands. That's weird, I didn't think I touched him. I try to take him down as quickly as I can, using his surprise to my advantage.

"Brooke," I hear Rocket call. I turn and see that Gamora and Peter got the things. I lay one more hit the guard before running over. I climb up the side of Groot just behind Rocket.

We kick the guard out of the watchtower and start taking over. I notice Gamora staring at a guy I've never met. "Spare me your foul gaze, woman," he yells at Gamora.

She turns to Peter. "Why is this one here?" she ask.

"And who the hell is he?" I ask. I'm too fond of being kept out of the loop of things.

"His name is Drax," Peter starts. He turns to Gamora for the rest of it. "We promised him he could stay by your side until he kills your boss. I always keep my promises, when they're to muscle-bound whack-jobs who will kill me if I don't." He then offers the leg to Rocket. "Here you go."

"Oh, I was just kidding about the leg," he says. I knew it. "I just need these two things."

"What?" Peter says shocked. Rocket and I start laughing. Peter's my brother, and I love him, but sometimes it's funny to know he did something idiotic.

"No, I...I thought it'd be funny. Was it funny? No, wait, what did he look like hopping around?"

"I had to transfer him thirty thousand units!"

I keep laughing until I realize something. "You don't have thirty thousand units," I say. "You stole from me!"

"I only borrowed 22,000," he says meekly. "I'll pay you back." He better.

"How are we going to leave?" Dead asks.

"Well, he's got a plan," Peter answers, just before turning hostile. "Right? Or is that another thing you made up?"

"I have a plan! I have a plan!" Rocket defends.

"Cease your yammering and relieve us from this irksome confinement," Drax says. I could learn a few new words from him; ones that aren't swear words.

"Yeah, I'll have to agree with the walking thesaurus on that one," Peter agrees. Draw looks offended.

"Do not ever call me a thesaurus."

"It's just a metaphor, dude."

Rocket butts into their conversation. "His people are completely literal, metaphors are gonna go over his head."

"Nothing goes over my head," Drax says. "My reflexes are too fast. I would catch it."

"I'm canceling the vocabulary lessons I was about to ask for," I add.

"I'm gonna die surrounded by the biggest idiots in the galaxy," Gamora says emotionlessly.

The riot guards finally arrive with some heavy artillery in tow. "Those are some big guns." The head of the squad begins shouting orders out. A guard shoots at us and hits the window.

"Rodent, we are ready for your plan," Gamora says. I grab hold of of Peter's arm. He can tell I'm afraid because he places his hand on top of mine.

"Hold on," Rocket says. We're doomed. We trusted a bunch of criminals and it's going to get us killed. I can see the black start to glow again. I tuck my necklace into my shirt. Another shot hits the tower.

Drax seems to have a revelation. "I recognize this animal. We'd roast them over a flame pit as children. Their flesh was quite delicious."

"Not helping!" Rocket yells at him. A third shot cracks the window. I see all the guards getting ready to fire their weapons.

"Rocket," I yell, "it's now or never." Just as the guards are about to pull their triggers, they begin floating. I let go of Peter to get a closer look.

"You turned off the artificial gravity," Gamora states, "everywhere but in here." She seems pretty impressed. So am I. I wish I was able to think up plans like this. I'd probably be somewhere else in the galaxy if I could.

"I told you I had a plan," Rocket says. He sounds proud of himself. He somehow starts to steer the watchtower towards the guards' area of the prison (I must've missed how he got jets on it). Gravity affects us again once we pass through the entryway and Rocket shuts the doors behind us.

"That was a pretty good plan," Peter says. We all run off to where they have our personal property being kept. Everyone grabs their stuff while Peter looks for the Milano. "Yeah! There it is. Get my ship. It's the Milano, the orange and blue one over in the corner."

I grab all of my stuff from out of my designated container. Nothing seems to be missing, but I guess I really didn't bring much with me. "They crumpled my pants up into a ball," Rocket yells. He looks over at me. "That's rude! They folded yours." I rolled my eyes at his complaint. Worse things could've happened to our stuff.

"The orb's there," Gamora tells Peter. "Let's go!" He keeps looking through his stuff.

"Wait, wait, wait," he mutters. I look over his shoulder. Gamora asks him what's wrong. "That bastard didn't put it back." The Walkman. The guard took the Walkman wherever it was he went.

"Put what back?" Gamora asks. I can't tell her. She won't understand why it's so important to him.

I take Peter's bag (the one with the Orb) from him. "I'll take this," I tell him calmly. He'll freak out if I'm not careful. "You go find the guy and get it back. We won't leave without you."

"How is he gonna possibly…" Gamora starts.

Peter cuts her off. "Just keep the Milano close by. Go. Go!" The rest of us run off to the ship. I start the ship and take off.

"Rocket," I call out. "Fly us to just outside the prison, but don't leave without Peter." I don't give him time to complain. I haven't changed yet and am sick of these ugly yellow clothes. Once I'm back in my regular attire, I return to the bridge.

"Well, screw this, then!" Rocket yells. I've missed the beginning of this conversation. "I ain't waiting around for some humie with a death wish. You got the orb, right?"

"No," I answer. I may not have the bag, but I have a brain. Peter wouldn't have handed that bag over without taking something that would assure him his ride. He's not always an idiot.

"She's right," Gamora says. She looked through the bag. "Quill took the orb with him. How could you let him risk all of our lives?"

I stare at her for a second. "He's my brother," I answer. She seems confused, so I guess I'll elaborate. "When we left Terra, we left our newborn sister behind. I don't know about Peter, but I've never forgotten her. I refuse to abandon Peter because I refuse to allow myself to leave another sibling behind."

"But," Rocket starts, "if we don't leave now, we will be blown to bits."

"No!" Gamora shouts. Maybe my speech left an impact on her. "We're not leaving without the orb."

"Did no one pay attention to my little speech about how I don't want to leave my one and only brother behind?" I ask. "You heard me, right Groot?" He nods. "Did you hear me Drax?" He's looking out the window and doesn't respond. "Drax?"

"Behold," he announces. We all look out the window as well. Peter's using his rocket boots to propel himself towards us. Idiot. Drax helps Peter board the ship. "This one shows spirit. He shall make a keen ally in the battle against Ronan." At least he's defending Peter to the rest of the group as well. Someone's siding with us. Drax turns to Peter. "Companion, what were you retrieving?" Peter confidently hands him the Walkman and walks to the bridge. "You're an imbecile."

I couldn't agree more. "Looks like we're back at square one," I mutter. I grab the Walkman from Drax to put the tape into the ship's cassette player. I can't imagine anyone having a more difficult time anywhere in the galaxy.


	5. An Infinity Stone

I decided it would just be for the best to hide from everyone. Peter's "guests" don't seem to like us (or each other) that much, and I'd rather not get caught in the crossfire of any fights. Luckily I keep books hidden in remote areas of the ship for situations similar to this. Of course, those situations usually revolve around Peter and some girl sleeping together, but whatever. This book is an old one from the Kree talking about old beings known as the Celestials. They were an ancient race that predated the Asgardians (the Norse gods of Terra as I read in another book).

"I was gonna put it in a box," I hear Rocket yell. I roll my eyes and place my book back in its hiding place. I might as well try stop everyone from tearing each other apart. I arrive in the main room just as Rocket picks up Peter's present from Mom out of a box. "How about this one?"

"No!" Peter yells, taking the present from Rocket. "Woah! Hey! Hey! Leave it alone!" He puts it back. I still have no idea why he's never opened it. I wish he would so I could open mine and my sister's. I have hold of them both (Mom trusted the three year-old over the eight year-old when it came to her new baby's gift) and I've never had the heart to touch them without knowing Peter was ready to move on with his life.

"Why?" Rocket questions. "What is it?"

"Shut up," Peter snaps. His attention moves to something else. "What is that?"

"That's for if things get really hardcore," Rocket says. He continues more nonchalantly. "Or if you wanna blow up moons." That perks my interest. Blowing things up for no reason sounds really fun right now.

"No one's blowing up moons," Gamora calls from the cockpit.

I whine a little. I really need to do something besides read, otherwise I'll be out of books soon. "You just want to suck the joy out of everything," Rocket mutters. He gets me. I take a seat beside him.

Peter starts up a conversation with Gamora about her buyer's location, but I decide to talk to Rocket instead of listen. "I'm really sorry Peter snapped at you," I apologize. "He's just really protective of things from Terra."

"It's no problem," he responds, continuing with his work. "It would be a little better if you could tell me what that is though."

I sigh. "That was the present my mom gave Peter just before she died. He's never had the heart to open it, so I've never opened mine either." I pause for a second. "Not that it matters much anyway. Despite being raised on the Ravager ship, Yondu gave me a pretty good childhood. He's a pretty cool dad." I smile.

"Sounds like you're close with him. Do you have any friends that aren't your brother or Yondu?"

"I have Kraglin, but I guess he's sort of like a second dad to me in retrospect. I guess that means that I don't really have any friends."

The others start to get a little louder in their conversation. "Put it down, you fool!" Gamora yells at Drax. "You'll destroy us all."

"Or maybe just you, murderess!" Drax yells back.

"I let you live once, princess!"

"I am not a princess!" They're actually yelling in each other's faces by this time.

"Hey! Nobody is killing anybody on my ship!" Peter says, stepping between the two. "We're stuck together until we get the money."

"I have no interest in money," Drax says as he leaves. Poor guy. All he wants is revenge, but then what will he do.

"Great," Peter says. "That means more money for the three of us." Groot whimpers. "For the four of us." I cough to get his attention. "Fine, five of us. Partners."

"We have an agreement, but I would never be partners with the likes of you. I'll tell the buyer we're on our way," she begins to exit, but pauses. "And Quill, your ship is filthy." And with that she leaves.

"Oh, she has no idea," Peter chuckles. He turns to Rocket and I. "If I had a black light, the place would look like a Jackson Pollock painting."

"You got issues, Quill," Rocket says.

"Thank you very much for a mental scar I'll never be able to remove from my mind," I tell him. He really should keep his private matters private.

"Now back to your lack of friends," Rocket says. I roll my eyes.

"I have had boyfriends, you know?" I respond. "I'm just no longer in contact with them after the awful breakups we had."

"You vandalized their cars," Peter calls. He's steering the ship now.

"Stop eavesdropping on my conversations, Peter," I yell. "Otherwise I might not be so nice the next time you have a girl on board." That shut him up.

"Anyways," Rocket continues, "if you're really in such desperate need for friends, Groot and I would be happy to fill the space." Groot says something for Rocket to translate. "He says that he likes you."

"Thanks guys. It'll be nice to have someone other than family to talk to. Maybe we can do something after we sell the Orb. Go to a bar or something."

"That is an excellent idea."

—Time Skip—

After Rocket offered me his friendship (something I feel like he doesn't offer often), I decide to continue my reading in his company. He takes over flying the ship at some point, so I move my reading to the cockpit. It says that Celestials are able to handle these powerful artifacts known as the Infinity Stones. Turns out there's seven of these, each a different color with a different power. That's pretty cool.

"Wanna see something cool?" Rocket asks. I look up from my book to see an incredible sight. It's a giant head, I'm guessing one of the Celestials from my book. "Heads up!" Rocket yell to the others. "We're inbound."

"What is it?" Drax asks.

"It's called Knowhere," Gamora says. She sounds like our tour guide. "The severed head of an ancient celestial being." Called it. "Be wary headed in, rodent. There are no regulations whatsoever here." We enter the skull and I can see miners flying around in specialized ships. "Hundreds of years ago, the Tivan Group sent workers into mine the organic matter within the skull. The bone, brain tissue, spinal fluid. All rare resources, highly valued in black markets across the galaxy. It's dangerous and illegal work, suitable only for outlaws."

We climb out of the ship, starting our trek through the market area. "Well, I come from a planet of outlaws. Billy the Kid, Bonnie and Clyde, and John Stamos," Peter says. I'm pretty sure the guy from Full House doesn't count as an outlaw.

"It sounds like a place which I would like to visit," Drax says. That poor fool.

"Yeah, you should," Peter responds. Then, a group of poor kids surround us begging for units. Almost all of us turn them away, except for Groot who gives a little girl a flower.

"Your buyer's in there?" Rocket asks. He points to a nearby bar.

"We are to wait here for his representative," Gamora informs us.

Just then a guy gets thrown out of the bar. "This is no respectable establishment," Drax says. "What do you expect us to do while we wait?"

"I've got a couple of ideas," I tell him. I strut confidently into the bar and take a seat at the counter. I look back to see that Rocket, Groot, and Drax have followed me in. "Three of your strongest drink, bartender," I say, slamming some units in the counter. "Sorry, Groot. I'm assuming that you don't drink."

Groot responds. "He says that he'd prefer to stay sober," Rocket translates. He turns to Groot then. "Really? You're not gonna even try to get drunk?" Groot shakes his head. "Wuss."

The bartender brings our drinks out to us. "A toast gentlemen," I say. I hold my glass up to them. "To new friendships. Both men agree and we clink our glasses. We all take a drink and feel the effects instantly. It doesn't take long to finish our glasses and order more. After two more glasses we head over to a table surrounded by people. They're betting on a game with small creatures trying not to get eaten by a big one. Sounds a little cruel, but I'm a little too drunk to care.

Drax joins in the betting and begins to win. "Yes! Yes!" he yells.

"Yahoo!" Rocket cheers. Looks like they're pretty drunk, too.

"My Orloni has won, as I win at all things!" Drax brags. "Now, let's put more of this liquid into our bodies."

"That's the first thing you said that wasn't bat-shit crazy!" Rocket laughs. We get another round, but I decide against drinking it. "You've had all you can drink?" Rocket sound really smug.

"Please, I could outdrink you any day," I respond. "But, I think I may have had enough. I shouldn't be too drunk when we meet the buyer." I've got a feeling I'm going to need to have my wits about me when I get in there.

"That is something my Ovette would have said," Drax says. "She was very wise like that, ready to deal with any problems that may come."

"And then Ronan killed her," Rocket states. Drax sits quietly for a moment.

"Drax?" I ask. He looks angry.

"You have no idea of what had happened," he responds. I think he might be talking to Rocket.

"We don't need to talk about things like this, guys," I say.

"Let me guess what happened," Racket says. He takes another drink. "She was doing really good at defending herself, but saw something happening to your daughter. She let her guard down and didn't make it. After that, they took your daughter. How close was I?"

Drax didn't answer. He attacked Rocket instead. Groot noticed the brawl and joined in, trying to protect Rocket. "Guys!" I yell. I step in between the fight to try and stop it, but someone pushes me away. I stumble back and hit my head against the edge of the bar. I land on the ground disoriented. They must have pushed me pretty hard.

Peter and Gamora enter while I'm recovering. "Stop it!" Gamora yells. She grabs Drax and pulls him away.

Rocket aims his gun at Drax, but Peter intervenes. "Waoh! Woah! What are you doing?" he asks.

"This vermin speaks of affairs he knows nothing about!" Drax yells.

"That is true!" Rocket responds.

"He has no respect!" Drax continues.

"That is also true!" Does he want everyone to hate him?

"Hold on! Hold on!" Peter interrupts. I try to stand up and help him, but I fall back down. I really took a hit.

"Keep calling me vermin, tough guy! You just wanna laugh at me like everyone else!" Rocket yells. I guess he thinks it's his time to rant.

"Rocket, you're drunk. Alright? No one's laughing at you."

"He thinks I'm some stupid thing! He does! Well, I didn't ask to get made! I didn't ask to be torn apart, and put back together, over and over and turned into some...some little monster!"

"He called me vermin! She called me rodent! Let's see if you can laugh after five or six good shots to your frickin' face!" Peter steps between Rocket and Drax once again.

"No, no, no, no! Four billion units! Rocket! Come on, man. Hey! Suck it up for one more lousy night and you're rich." This makes Rocket lower his gun.

"Fine. But I can't promise when all this is over I'm not gonna kill every last one of you jerks." I catch him glance at me. So much for friendship.

"See? That's exactly why none of you have any friends! Five seconds after you meet somebody, you're already trying to kill them!"

"We have traveled halfway across the quadrant, and Ronan is no closer to being dead," Drax says. He turns around and leaves the bar.

"Drax!" Peter calls. I guess he still wants to fix things.

"Let him go," Gamora says. "We don't need him."

"This is all my fault," I mutter. I'm the one that bought the drinks. There probably wouldn't have been a fight if I hadn't done that.

"No it's not," Peter says, offering me a hand. I take it and he helps me steady myself. "This group was a ticking time bomb anyway."

"Milady Gamora," a Kree girl announces, "I'm here to fetch you for my master." We all follow her to the buyer. We enter a large room full of different creatures and objects.

"Okay, this isn't creepy at all," I hear Rocket say. The room has different life forms locked in cages, almost like it's a prison rather than a museum. It might be. Everyone looks like they've suffered a great deal here.

"We house the galaxy's largest collection of fauna, relics, and species of all manner," the Kree girl says. She must be giving us a quick tour. We pass by a dog that seems to want out. He and Rocket growl at each other, but I just feel bad. He must have come from Terra and probably misses it a lot. "I present to you, Taneleer Tivan, the Collector."

The man I see before me is Terran in appearance. His skin is like mine and his hair is white. He's dressed in fur robes. Gamora walks up to him. "Oh, my dear Gamora," he greets. "How wonderful to meet in the flesh." He then kisses her hand, like a true gentleman would.

"Let's bypass the formalities, Tivan," Gamora responds. "We have what we discussed." She seems eager to get down to business. I guess she really wants to get her money and leave.

Tivan moves to speak to Groot. "What is that thing there?" he asks. Groot answers him. "I never thought I'd meet a Groot. Sir, you must allow me to pay you now so that I may own your carcass. At the moment of your death, of course." Groot responds again.

"Why, so he could turn you into a frickin' chair?" Rocket asks Groot. He must not have liked Groot's answer too much.

"That's your pet?" Tivan asks Groot.

"His what?!" Rocket yells. He reaches for his gun, but I stop him.

"Rocket is a friend, not a pet," I tell Tivan. He moves toward me.

"What a lovely necklace," he says. He reaches out for it, but I step back. "Pardon me, but is there any way you'd be willing to part with it?"

"I don't think so," I answer. "I've had this since I first left my home planet. It's somewhat priceless to me now." I can't wait to tell Horuz I found a guy that would have bought my necklace. He'll be livid.

"If you insist," he says. He begins to walk away. "Inform me at once if you should change your mind."

"Tivan," Gamora calls, "we have been halfway around the galaxy, retrieving this orb."

"Very well, then," he says. "Let us see what you brought." We all turn to Peter. He pulls it from his bag, but drops it instantly. Luckily he catches it just before it hits the ground. "Oh, my new friends. Before creation itself, there were seven singularities." He begins to unlock the Orb. Then the universe exploded into existence, and the remnants of these systems were forged into concentrated ingots. Infinity Stones. These stones, it seems, can only be brandished by beings of extraordinary strength. Observe." He shows us video of a Celestial destroying a planet with a purple Infinity Stone. I feel my necklace grow heavy. "These carriers can use the stone to mow down entire civilizations like wheat in a field. Though, not all are giants. Some are of average heights. Some even below." His eyes turn toward me for that last comment.

"There's a little pee coming out of me right now," Peter whispers. He must be scared of his short sister getting her hands on one. Seriously, did Tivan need to call me short?

"Once, for a moment, a group was able to share the energy amongst themselves, but even they were quickly destroyed by it," Tivan narrates. He looks down at the Orb. It's now open and reveals a purple stone. "Beautiful. Beyond compare."

"Blah, blah, blah," Rocket complains. "We're all very fascinated, whitey. But we'd like to get paid."

"How would you like to get paid?" Tivan asks.

"What do you think, fancy man? Units!"

"Very well, then." Tivan goes to collect our money, but notices something behind us. "Carina. Stand back."

The Kree girl is standing next to the Infinity Stone with her hand hovering above it. " I will no longer be your slave!" she yells.

"No!" Tivan yells. She grabs ahold of the Stone and is put into instantaneous suffering. She screams and her body explodes from the overload of power. I watch Groot grab Rocket and run out of the room while Peter pulls Gamora behind a table. No one comes for me, so I just watch as the blast comes toward me. I don't feel it hit me ever. I open my eyes to an odd sight. There is a transparent black shield is protecting me. The shield is coming from my necklace, and it feels like when I was attacked in the Kyln. The blast finally ends and I grab my necklace. I am hit with a vision. I see seven stones, the Infinity Stones. The blue stone (my brain tells me it's the Space Stone) becomes a glowing blue cube; the red stone (Reality Stone) becomes a floating mist of red and black; the yellow stone (Mind Stone) becomes a blue glowing scepter; the green stone (Time Stone) becomes an odd looking necklace; the purple stone (Power Stone) becomes the Orb that we just gave the Collector; the black stone (Wisdom Stone) becomes my necklace from Horuz; and finally the orange stone (Soul Stone) begins to transform, but I break out of my vision before I see what it becomes.

"What the f-" Peter stops his sentence when he notices me standing unscathed. "Brooke!" He rushes over and begins looking me over. Gamora grabs the Orb while he does this. "We have to go," he says before I can get a word in. I follow him and Gamora back outside.

"How could I think Tivan could contain whatever was within the orb?" Gamora asks. I think she's being rhetorical, but I am wondering how I explain that I have an Infinity Stone as well.

Rocket comes up looking panicked with Groot in tow. "What do you still have it for?" Rocket yells.

 _Now doesn't feel like the best time._

"Well what are we gonna do, leave it in there?" Peter asks.

 _Everyone's already fussing over this stone._

"I can't believe you had that in your purse!" Rocket continues.

 _Probably not as bad as me wearing one around my neck unknowingly for 26 years._

"It's not a purse, it's a knapsack!" Peter argues back.

 _And yet I still have no idea how this Wisdom Stone of mine works._

"We have to bring this to the Nova Corps," Gamora interrupts the argument. "There's a chance they can contain it."

 _I'd never find out if Gamora handed it over to the Nova Corp with the Orb._

"Are you kidding me?" Rocket asks. "We're wanted by the Nova Corps! Just give it to Ronan!"

 _I don't think I like the idea of Ronan, or anyone for that matter, using_ my _stone._

"So he can destroy the galaxy?" Peter asks Rocket.

 _I guess that would happen if I gave him my stone, too._

"What are you, some Saint all of a sudden?" Rocket argues. "What has the galaxy ever done for you? Why would you wanna save it?"

 _I can't imagine what would happen if someone had more than one Infinity Stone in their possession._

"Because I'm one of the idiots who lives in it!" Peter yells.

 _The best move I can make to prevent that is by holding onto mine._

"Peter," Gamora says, "listen to me. We cannot allow the stone to fall into Ronan's hands. We have to go back to your ship and deliver it to Nova."

 _And everyone could help me protect it better once they find out._

"Right, right, okay," Peter agrees. "I think you're right. Or we could give it to somebody who's not going to arrest us, who's really nice for a whole lot of money. I think it's a really good balance between both of your points of view."

 _Though maybe they should know sooner in that case._

"You're despicable," Gamora tells Peter. He tries to say something, but she ain't having it. "Dishonorable. Faithless!"

 _I think I should say something now._ "So, on a different, similar note," I begin, "my necklace is also an Infinity Stone." Everyone freezes and stares at me. "I just found out. I'm not sure how to work it yet, but I started figuring it out back at the Kyln."

"And you're just now bringing this up?" Peter asks.

"I just now figured it out," I reply. I should probably mention how I plan on keeping this one for myself.

"Oh, no," Gamora suddenly says. She's turned around to see Ronan and his crew arriving in Knowhere.

"At last!" Drax shouts at the incoming ship. "I shall meet my foe and destroy him."

"You called Ronan?" Peter asks him. What idiot calls for the one guy in the galaxy that will kill us for our Infinity Stones?

"Quill! Brooke! Don't you two move!" I look over to see Yondu and the Ravagers coming our way. I turn to Peter, but he and Gamora are already running the other way. "Don't you move!" I notice the black glow on my hands once again. I focus on one of the stands and bring it crashing in front of the crew.

"I feel bad," I call to them, "but I'm not sorry about that. By the way, thanks for the Infinity Stone, Horuz." I run in the direction the others had gone. I hear Yondu yelling behind me.

"There she is," I hear Rocket say. "Brooke, climb into one of those mining pods. We're going to try and confuse them while Gamora takes the Orb the ship."

"But protect your own stone," Gamora tells me. "It would be the same disaster if my father and Ronan got their hands on either stone."

"I've got it," I answer both. I can do this. I can definitely fight off a galactic evil from obtaining two of seven weapons that destroy the universe as we know it. No pressure though.


	6. Who's Got a Plan?

**I'd like to answer the question of whether this goes into the next Guardians movie as well. This will, but it goes into more than that. This connects to a Wattpad story written by my sister (she's been thinking of moving it onto here as well) and will see Brooke going to Earth ti meet up with some of the heroes there. That being said, we messed up the time line a bit. Guardians 2 takes place after Civil War in our continuity rather than a few months after the first movie. Sorry if that upsets anyone, but that's how things are going.**

I climb into my pod carefully. The controls don't look that complex, this should be easy to fly. I take my seat and begin the take off. Once I'm off the ground, I follow the others to the Milano. It's not long before Ronan's goons come after us.

"Brooke, Rocket, keep them off Gamora until she gets to the Milano," Peter says through the on-ship communication device. I scan over my controls for a weapon. Seeing none, I decide the only thing I've got is my stone. I raise one hand and focus on knocking some mining equipment onto one of the enemy ships.

"How? We've got no weaponry on these things," Rocket yells at Peter. "And not all of us have an Infinity Stone we can wield."

"Don't hate," I respond, taking another shot at the same ship.

"These pods are industrial grade, they're nearly indestructible," Peter answers.

"Not against necroblasts, they're not," Rocket tell him.

"That's not what I'm saying," Peter says. I like this idea he's cooked up.

"Oh!" I hear Rocket say. He begins crashing into ships. I follow his lead, taking out the one I had been attacking previously.

"Let me borrow your ride," Peter tells one of the Sakaarians.

"Quill, I'm trapped!" Gamora calls out. "I can't make it to the Milano, I have to head out." What looks to be the main ship is right on Gamora's tail.

"What?" Peter asks. "Wait! These things aren't meant to go out there." We all follow her and the main ship outside.

"You are a disappointment, sister," the woman in the main ship says. "Of all our siblings, I hated you least." That's harsh. I hate both of my siblings, even my unknown sister, equally.

"Nebula, please," Gamora pleads with her sister. "If Ronan gets this stone he'll kill us all."

"Not all," she says. "You will already be dead." She fires at Gamora and the ship explodes. Gamora is left floating in space, the stone being picked up by Nebula.

"Quill," Rocket says, referring to both Peter and I, "come on. Her body mods should keep her alive a couple more minutes, but there's nothing we can do for her. These pods aren't meant to be out here. In a second, we're gonna be in the same boat." He begins to turn around.

"We have to get the stone back," I tell them both. I turn around as well.

"Aw, damn it!" Peter mutters. Rocket questions him. Peter starts a transmission. "Yondu! Yondu! This is Quill! My coordinates are two-two-seven-K-three-two- four." Rocket keeps trying to talk to him, but Peter just ignores him. "Just outside Knowhere. If you're there, come get me. I'm all yours." He opens the door and jets towards Gamora.

"Peter!' I yell at him. "He'll kill you. Dad can't afford to just pick you up and let you live again."

"Quill, don't be ridiculous," Rocket says simultaneously with me. "Get back into your pod! You can't fit two people in there, you're gonna die." Peter takes off his mask. "You'll die in seconds! Quill!" Peter puts his mask on Gamora as Yondu comes to pick him up."

"Let's go, Brooke," Rocket says. "No sense in the Ravagers taking you, too."

"But Peter…" I start.

"No, I won't let you get taken, too," he yells. I'm taken back by this. "Let's go get Drax and Groot." We both keep quiet on the ride back inside the skull. Groot and Drax are together when we land in front of them. "Blasted idiot. They're all idiots! Quill just got himself captured and this one tried to get herself taken, too!" Rocket turns his attention from my silence to Drax. "None of this ever would have happened if you didn't try to single-handedly take on a frickin' army!" Drax follows my lead and just remains silent, but Rocket won't let him off the hook. "Oh, boo-hoo-hoo. 'My wife and child are dead.'" Groot and I both gasp. "Oh, I don't care if it's mean! Everybody's got dead people! That's no excuse to get everybody else dead along the way! Come on, Groot. Ronan has the stone. The only chance we got is to get to the other side of the universe as fast as we can and maybe, just maybe, we'll be able to live full lives before that whack-job ever gets there."

Groot says something to Rocket. "Save them?" Rocket asks. "How?" Groot gives him an answer. "I know they're the only friends that we ever had, but there's an army of Ravagers around them. And there's only two of us!"

Drax stands up next to Groot. "Three," he says.

"Make that four," I tell them, standing up as well. "I'm your ace in the hole with this Infinity Stone. Not to mention I've had Yondu wrapped around my finger since I was 4."

Rocket looks at us all and grunts frustratedly. He starts kicking at the ground. "Aw! You're making me beat up grass!" The rest of us start laughing. He sighs defeatedly. "Let's go before those idiots get themselves killed." We all head back to the Milano and begin trailing the Eclector.

"Do we have a plan for this or are we just gonna wing it?" I ask the boys. They all just sit there quietly. "Maybe we should come up with something. We could try bartering with Yondu."

"What are we going to offer him?" Drax asks.

"Her," Rocket says. He looks angry. "She wants us to use herself as a bartering chip."

"It would work!" I respond. "I told you that I was 'Daddy's Little Girl' when I was young, what else would you think my plan would be?"

"Something less stupid!" Rocket yells. He takes a breath. "Why don't you go practice with that stone? We'll probably need those abilities."

"Fine," I snap, storming off the bridge before it's even fully left my mouth. I climb up into the pod that's attached to the top of the Milano. Peter gave it to me when he first fixed her up.

I arrive and look around. This has become my own personal living quarters, and that shows. Snow Bear sits in the passenger seat, ready for any solo missions I should decide to embark on. In the back is a pile of assorted pillows and blankets that has become my makeshift bed. Sitting on my controls are two small presents. The presents are the ones from mom to my sister and I. Aside from these few items, the pod is decently clean. The Animal, named after a Muppet I liked when I was on Terra, is always prepared for me to just up and leave. I don't have a reason to go yet, so I just stay here.

I sit down in the pilot seat to start my training. This is apparently the Wisdom Stone, so by definition it should tell me everything I need to know. I take hold of the key, like I had back at Tivan's, and focus my mind on how it could function. It takes a few seconds, but the answers are revealed to me.

The stone acts as an extension of my mind. It gives me the capability of manipulating objects that surround me. I can also shoot out a blast of its pure energy, but doing so weakens the stone. The stone also holds the power to reveal to me the answers to questions I may have. It can't see the future, but it does know the past and present. I turn my focus onto the question I want the answer to most.

Before my eyes materializes a room. In this room is the woman from my dream back at the Kyln. I can see her light blonde hair reaches just below her shoulders and compliments her pale skin. Her eyes lean closer to grey rather than blue or green. She's wearing a navy blue, skin tight suit that has a light blue snowflake in the center of the chest. She looks sad, but somewhat happy. The room she's sitting is all black. There is a table sitting in the center of the room as well as an unoccupied chair. I slowly reach out to the young woman, wanting to hold her. This is my sister. The resemblance between us is clear enough for me to grasp that I've found her. She's alive and on Terra. A loud sound breaks my concentration, and the Animal becomes my setting again.

Outside the window stands Drax with a large gun aimed at the Eclector. I rush to the bridge of the Milano to ask what's happening. "The lunatic on top of this craft is holding a Hadron Enforcer," I hear Rocket say. He must be speaking to the Ravagers. "It's a weapon of my own design. If you don't hand over our companions now, he's gonna tear your ship a new one. A very big new one! I'm giving you to the count of five. Five." Rocket begins his countdown.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" I yell, trying to stop him as he keeps counting. I'll have to stop Drax with my stone if Yondu doesn't suck up his pride.

"Rocket, it's me, for God sakes! We figured it out! We're fine!" Peter shouts over the comms. I glare at Rocket as he goes silent.

"Oh, hey, Quill. What's going on?" Rocket asks my brother.

"And you called my plan stupid," I say, making sure that the Ravagers will be able to hear me. "I may have been traded over, but at least no one would have died."

"Come on board and get this idiot brother of yours," Yondu's voice instructs. I agree and send Rocket to get Drax for us. As I pilot the Milano into the M-Ship bay, I see the Ravagers waiting for me to land. The boys and I disembark, headed straight for Yondu. "Nice to see you back home, sweetheart," Yondu welcomes. He holds his arms out for me.

"It's good seeing you again too, Dad," I tell him, accepting the hug. "How's it going, Kraglin?" The man offers up a smile from behind Yondu.

"Hate to break up the father-daughter reunion," Peter says, "but I need to discus my plan with her, too." He looks over at Yondu's face, probably expecting to get a no.

Yondu let's go of me. "You go and make sure this ain't a stupid plan that'll get all my men killed," Yondu says before letting us all go into a private area.

The private area just happens to be the Milano, but none of the Ravagers are allowed on board until Yondu says. "So, about this plan?" I start.

"Oh yeah," Peter says, "about that. Before you call me crazy, hear me out. I say that we get on board Ronan's ship and steal the stone back. What do you guys think?"

"You call that 'figured it out'?" Rocket yells. It's what we're all thinking right now. "We're gonna rob the guys who just beat us senseless."

"Oh, you want to talk about senseless?" Peter argues. "How about trying to save us by blowing us up?"

"We were only gonna blow you up if they didn't turn you over!" Rocket shoots back.

"And how on earth were they gonna turn us over when you only gave them a count of five?" Peter says.

"Well we didn't have time to work out the minutiae of the plan," Rocket tells him condescendingly. He turns toward Groot, Drax, and me. "This is what we get for acting altruistically!" Groot says something to us. "They are ungrateful."

"I'd like to take this moment to point out that I was not a part of that plan," I say. "I had an entirely different plan that was turned away for being 'too stupid.'" I glare in Rocket's direction when I say this. He glares back.

"What's important now," Gamora interrupts, "is we get the Ravagers' army to help us save Xandar."

"So we can give the stone to Yondu who's just gonna sell to somebody even worse?" Rocket asks.

"We'll figure that part out later," Peter says.

At the same time as Peter, I say "I won't let that happen." We look at each other, neither one expecting the other to have spoken at that moment.

"We have to stop Ronan," Gamora tells us. She must feel like this is her fault, but it's our fault, too. We all failed to stop Ronan from gaining the Orb.

"How?" Rocket asks.

"Oh, ye of little faith," I tell him, looking in Peter's direction.

My brother smiles at my confidence. "I have a plan," Peter says. He looks at everyone, judging their reactions.

"You've got a plan?" Rocket asks. He's just a doubter, isn't he?

"Yes," Peter says. He lacks some confidence in this retort.

"First of all, you're copying me from when I said I had a plan," Rocket lists off.

"No, I'm not," Peter argues. "People say that all the time, it's not that unique of a thing to say."

"Maybe it's his catchphrase," I try. I look over and see Groot shaking his head no. "Or he could be a buzzkill is all."

"Secondly," Rocket says, stopping the subject, "I don't even believe you have a plan."

"I have part of a plan!" Peter argues.

Drax decides this is the perfect time to speak up. "What percentage of a plan do you have?" he asks.

"You don't get to ask questions after the nonsense you pulled on Knowhere," Gamora tells him. She does have a point.

"I just saved Quill," Drax shoots back at her. We all give him an exasperated look.

"We've already established that you destroying the ship that I'm on is not saving me," Peter says.

"When did we establish that?" Drax asks.

 _This guy is just full of questions._

"Like three seconds ago!" Peter yells.

"I wasn't listening," Drax mutters, "I was thinking of something else." Gamora makes a sound of frustration as the only response to his statement.

"She's right, you don't get an opinion," Rocket tells Drax. He turns to Peter again. "What percentage?"

Peter flounders for a second for an answer. "I don't know, twelve percent." I facepalm at this.

"Twelve percent?" Rocket asks before exploding into laughter.

"That's a fake laugh," Peter points out. He's not in any position to be judging anyone right if I'm being honest.

"It's real!" Rocket shouts, cutting off his laughing fit.

"Totally fake," Peter argues back.

"That is the most real, authentic, hysterical laugh of my entire life because that is not a plan," Rocket says, turning our attention back to Peter's plan (or lack thereof).

"It's barely a concept," Gamora says. Her tone is that of a person ready to give up, something I've heard a lot with the Ravagers.

"You're taking their side?" Peter asks her.

"I'm your sister, and even I just lost all hope of getting the Orb back," I tell him. He looks hurt at my words, but the only other thing I could do was lie to him.

"I am Groot."

"Thank you, Groot," Peter says, happy someone believes in him. "Thank you. See? Groot's the only one of you who has a clue." Peter turns to see Groot starting to chew on a leaf protruding from his shoulder. He shakes his head while Rocket chuckles. "Guys. Come on. Yondu is gonna be here in two seconds. He expects to hear this big plan of ours. I need your help." He looks at me. If I don't vouch for whatever he says here, Yondu will just kill everyone and move on. "I look around at us, you know what I see? Losers. I mean, like, folks who have lost stuff. And we have. Man, we have. All of us. Our homes, our families, normal lives. And, usually, life takes more than it gives, but not today. Today, it's given us something. It has given us a chance."

"To do what?" Drax asks.

"To give a shit," Peter answers, probably glad someone asked. He continues. "For once, not run away. I, for one, am not gonna stand by and watch as Ronan wipes out billions of innocent lives."

"But, Quill," Rocket says, "stopping Ronan, it's impossible. You're asking us to die." That's a really good argument there.

"Yeah, I guess I am. I…" Peter stops his speech and turns around. That's something I know he can't actually ask us to do.

"Quill," Gamora says, gaining everyone's attention. "I have lived most my life surrounded by my enemies." She stands up from the crate she's been sitting on. "I will be grateful to die among my friends."

Drax stands as well. "You are an honorable man, Quill," he tells Peter. "I will fight beside you. And in the end, see my wife and daughter again."

"It's hard to say no when you did your best job at giving us a hero speech," I say, straightening up from the wall I've been leaning against. "Not to mention that I've always got your back, bro." He smiles at me.

Groot stands and says something probably about being on our side. That leaves only one person sitting. "Oh, what the hell," Rocket mutters. "I don't got that long a lifespan, anyway." He stands on top of his crate. "Now I'm standing. You all happy? We're all standing up now. Bunch of jackasses, standing in a circle."

"We may want to think up the other eighty-two percent of the plan before Yondu comes in," I tell everyone.

"You have a point," Peter says. We all sit back down and begin scheming up our master plan.


End file.
